A muscular opener with a penchant for swatting the ball square either side of the wicket, much like Dwayne Smith, Johnson Charles was part of West Indies' T20 World Cup winning teams in 2012 and 2016. While Smith's second skill is seam bowling, Charles' is wicketkeeping. With Denesh Ramdin representing West Indies in all three formats, and Andre Fletcher also in the limited-overs mix, West Indies have used Charles' second skill sparingly.

Charles' power-hitting came to the fore when he muscled 52 off 36 balls against India, setting up West Indies' win over India in the World T20 semi-final in Mumbai in 2016. After the tournament-winning victory, St Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony announced that Charles would have a grandstand named after him at Beausejour Stadium, now Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium.

Charles also showed sparks of brilliance during his 84 against England in Pallekele in 2012, and 57 against Australia in Brisbane in 2013. Charles' knock helped West Indies secure their first win over Australia in any format for 16 years. Charles hit a century as well in the fifth ODI on that Australian tour, having elbowed way into the West Indies ODI team in 2012 with a string of startling displays for the Windward Islands in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament.

He, however, has failed to crack the consistency code. He played for Antigua Hawksbills in the inaugural CPL in 2013, before moving to St Lucia Zouks.